So I know most people repot their plants when they bring them from the store. But I got this monstera monkey mask and her soil looks nice and she isn’t root bound. Should I still repot? And if you do repot do you take all the old dirt off the root ball?
It doesn’t sound like you need to repot! Unless the plant looks unhealthy or it’s clear that the soil isn’t good anymore you can leave the soil on the rootball and just add soil as needed - I typically loosen the soil a bit, but unless something is wrong it’s best to not disturb the roots to avoid shocking the plant
4 likesI repot almost all of mine because they’re normally too wet or there’s a problem but if there’s nothing wrong with the soil I’d leave it!
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How confident are you that she doesn’t have a plug? Unless very sure I’d still get in there in the next month or so. Otherwise if she’s happy and you feel good about the potting mix then leave her be
1 likeI agree! I had the hardest time repotting a plant that I left as purchased and found the roots suffocating! There were 3 of these plastic pots in one plant. It was like performing surgery.
Oh my gosh!!! 🤯 I was just going to respond to Kendall above that I’m not sure what a plug is! Is that a plug? Why do they pot them with that thing? I found that on my Zz raven that I rescued and she had the worst case of root rot I ever smelled!! It was so hard to get off I had to use serious heavy duty tools.
0 likes Not all of them are plastic like that. Some are a finer mesh, or a fabric. Occasionally there isn’t a physical barrier but there’s a super dense and water retentive material at the base, so even when the rest of the soil mix seems good the very base of the roots is still very wet and rotting
0 likes They do it because they start the baby plants in those small containers and then rather than go to the work of removing the plug they just move it into the bigger pot and plant around it. Most companies that use them claim that they’re not harmful or that they’ll break down, but I’ve found them fully intact years later.
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I always change the soil. Bug, fungus, bacteria, moisture… especially with chain stores. Notorious for having issues and if you have a good number of plants it can be a real pain to correct something that would have been fixed with just changing the soil and cleaning the pot before replanting
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